CHAPTER 117 Stronger You

  ~ JESSE ~

  He sighed. "Perhaps not. Or, perhaps your heart wants something you have no words for?"

  "No, Cazz… I'm serious. I didn't offer myself to you because I thought I could beat you."

  "Why did you offer yourself? Truly?"

  "Because you were the first man I met who it seemed like could genuinely protect me from the others."

  A wave of feeling came through the bond then. That shriek in him. That hollow pain that cried out to be soothed.

  He had already pulled away from me, so he just stood there, staring at me.

  Yet, he hadn't shut down the bond.

  Holy shit. Did he not know he was still open to me? Was he going to do it again the moment he realized? I scrambled mentally to keep him talking, opening myself to the bond as fully as I knew how, pulling at him, praying he wouldn't shut me down so I could see where he was really at.

  "Cazz, I don't want you for your power, I want you for your strength," I whispered.